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Gingrich says he couldn't vote for Ron Paul for president

DES MOINES, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says he couldn’t vote for rival Ron Paul if he were to become the GOP’s presidential nominee.

Gingrich sharply criticized Paul in an interview with CNN for what he said were “racist, anti-Semitic” comments in newsletters that carried Paul’s name in the 1990s. Paul says he didn’t write the newsletters or even read them.

Gingrich says there will come a morning when people won’t take Paul as a serious person. The former House speaker also calls Paul’s total record, one of, in his words, “systemic avoidance of reality.”

But Gingrich also said voting for the Texas congressman won’t be an issue because he won’t win the Republican nomination.

Paul has been running anti-Gingrich TV ads in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses next week.